In 2014, the World Health Organization estimated that there were 1.5 million deaths as a result of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection (0.4 million of which were HIV-positive). Vietnam is located in a region that accounts for 58% of the world's TB cases, and an estimated 137,000 Vietnamese are infected with TB per year (5,000 of which acquire drug-resistant TB). Of these, the disease kills an estimated 19,000 Vietnamese annually. In the current proposal, we aim to enhance and strengthen a research training program between the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Institute of Marine Biochemistry at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (IMBC-VAST), and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) in Hanoi, Vietnam. We aim to enhance host country basic and translational research capacity that focuses on the discovery and development of antibiotic leads for TB. Since the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have invested heavily in both clinical labs and HIV/AIDS/TB surveillance systems in Vietnam, though these and several other efforts have focused predominantly on building medical infrastructure. Our proposal will bridge this gap by enhancing basic and translational science research infrastructure and a researcher training program that focuses on utilizing host-country resources to discover antibiotic leads that will treat TB and probe its basic mechanisms of pathogenicity through coordinated antibiotic lead screening programs in Hanoi. The success of this program is driven by short- and long-term research training and education. UIC has a strong track record of collaboration with VAST. Through NIH and MacArthur Foundation funding in the past 20 years, the team has worked to build a plant-based drug-lead discovery and resource conservation program. However, with greater than 3,000 km of coastline, Vietnam harbors some of the richest marine biodiversity in the world, from which this proposal aims to mine. The aims of this program are 1) Establish three independent investigators at IMBC-VAST/NIHE via long-term postdoctoral training at UIC; 2) Provide short- and long-term antibiotic-specific training to nine IMBC/NIHE predoctoral students over the course of the program period; 3) Enhance biological assay research infrastructure through creation of an in vitro M. tuberculosis screening program at NIHE. In a five-year period, our program will generate twelve highly trained scientists who specialize in TB antibiotic discovery and development. Three of the twelve scientists ? with considerable institutional support from the Director and President of their respective institutes ? will establish independent research groups that complement a broader program that uses Vietnam's natural resources to discover TB antibiotics, and to use these leads to explore mechanisms of M. tuberculosis pathogenicity. Beyond the five-year project period, the significant enhancement in research capacity at IMBC and NIHE will establish northern Vietnam as a translational screening center for TB, and will facilitate collaboration with institutions across and outside Vietnam.